A few days after I landed in Kuwait, the Ramadan rituals started. It lasts for about a month when people don't eat, drink water let alone smoke or drink during the day hours. You could be jailed for drinking, eating or smoking in public anytime from early morning to late evening. That was the penalty for tempting the natives even though you belonged to a different race, religion or nationality.
The idea captured my mind. When the entire nation stops drinking, eating and smoking why couldn't I give a try at stopping smoking?
So I decided to give it a shot though I had made one unsuccessful attempt earlier.
I decided that to control the initial smoking pangs I would go for those nicotine patch things. I found these were plentiful in stock in Kuwaiti pharmacies. Obviously a lot of other people had the same idea as mine!
My first few days without cigarettes were not bad. But I noticed that I was making those extra trips to the coffee maker and was defintely putting on fat.
The third day I had a smoke late at night but then angrily stubbed it off before it burnt out.
Every morning I applied the nicotine patch like a shield to protect me, and removed it after bath later in the evening.
My trial lasted exactly three weeks. After the third week, pushed to the brink by the demands of non stop work, I started smoking again. I was a bit shameful when I faced my Arab boss. I had broken a resolution! And failed that test that every Muslim gives once every year, year after year, though of course his religion allows him to do whatever he pleases during the night hours.
I noticed I had put on a lot of puppy fat from that incessant coffee imbibing and wolfing down food.
Side effects of trying to stop smoking!
Soon I was back puffing away, in secret; till Ramadan ended uneventfully.
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